ALBUM REVIEW: Solo 'Soulfire' a triumph for Van Zandt

Thursday

May 18, 2017 at 7:45 PMMay 19, 2017 at 9:30 AM

Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul are back with “Soulfire,” a rich, highly personal and jubilant release.

Pete Chianca

He’s a producer, radio impresario, songwriter, actor, philanthropist -- oh, and longtime consigliere and sideman to the one and only Bruce Springsteen. Steven Van Zandt can lay legitimate claim to the title of hardest working man in show business, and that’s without having released a solo album in two decades.

Until now, that is: Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul are back with “Soulfire,” a rich, highly personal and jubilant release that marks nothing less than a triumphant return for Van Zandt as a solo performer.

“I felt a bit guilty about having walked away from Little Steven the artist,” Van Zandt says now. “I left that part of myself behind and I shouldn’t have done that.” Not that he’s spent that time resting on his laurels, but hearing how self-assured and at home he sounds on “Soulfire,” it’s easy to see why he was itching to get back to it.

Van Zandt has always been master of the gruff yelp, especially when sharing a mic with his boss, and those who remember “Voice of America” from the early ’80s may recall a hard-rock tinge to his vocals that was befitting of the more cynical material. Here, though, Van Zandt has dug out his best Southside Johnny by-way-of Little Italy drawl, awash with soul and a randy garage rock vibe.

The Southside comparisons are inevitable -- Van Zandt shaped the Jukes’ sound as producer on their first three albums, and “Soulfire” could fit comfortably on the shelf among any of them. In fact, for the songs here originally done by Southside -- notably “I Don’t Want to Go Home” and the Springsteen collaboration “Love On The Wrong Side of Town” -- it’s hard to discern exactly how they differ from the originals, beyond some more Wall of Sound in the mix.

Still, the songs are so solid that their familiarity isn’t a burden, and they stand up well with the lesser known tracks on the disc, mostly written by Van Zandt for other artists over his career (see adjacent sidebar). Interestingly in this era of political turmoil, none of them take on the state of the republic; instead they tend to be about love, commitment, persistence, salvation and, implicitly, the way rock and soul can help you hang on to all of those things.

That starts right out of the gate with the title track, its blaring horns and assured guitar riffs buoying lyrics about finding redemption in companionship. (“I know we’re stronger together than we are apart,” he sings. “The rest we’ll figure out as we go.”) Van Zandt’s guitar work is stellar here and throughout the record -- he may not be the most unconventional player, but he knows his way around licks and how to best play them off a barrage of soaring soul horns.

That’s definitely true on “I’m Coming Back,” an old-fashioned soul stirrer about a prodigal son’s return, and “I Saw The Light,” another redemptive anthem about wandering out of the wilderness: “I was living a self-made hoax, now I feel born again in a kaleidoscope,” he sings over an explosive arrangement that makes great use of transcendent backing vocals.

Van Zandt does depart from the Southside soul template on several tracks, to great effect: “The Blues is My Business,” originally recorded by Etta James, offers up chugging Chicago blues, and “Down and Out in New York City” -- a cover of a 1973 James Brown track -- drips with funk guitar and an almost jazzy groove.

On the gorgeous doo-wop number “The City Weeps Tonight,” meanwhile, Stevie is backed by The Persuasions for his most surprising vocal, a plaintive Little Anthony croon. And “Saint Valentine’s Day,” a killer girl-group track Van Zandt wrote for the Cocktail Slippers, gets a rock ’n’ roll makeover without losing any of its clever bite.

In the end, those familiar with his Jukes work won’t find any huge musical revelations on “Soulfire,” but you may be surprised at just how confident and joyous Van Zandt sounds after all those years away from the lead mic. He sounds like someone who’s taken his share of hits and is thrilled to still be standing, and is maybe even a bit wiser for it: “I’ve learned something baby,” he sings on “Standing in the Line of Fire,” “What a lucky man I am.” And we’re lucky to have this musical testament to that fact.